STINGING NETTLE SOUP WITH NIGELLA SEEDS

They’re called “stinging nettles” for a reason. Tiny barbs on the undersides of the leaves sting any flesh they encounter. The burn is uncomfortable for a few minutes, like a bee string and then it goes away, but you don’t want to be picking nettles with your bare hands. Happily, once they’re submerged in boiling water, the stingers stop stinging and you can handle them with impunity. I’ve had my own private love affair with nettles for years. They love the foggy California coast and I used them a lot at Greens. Sadly, they don’t flourish in the desert where I live now so they’ve become something of a rarity for me, but when some intrepid farmer who has enough water to grow them brings a bunch to the market, I jump on them. An online search for nettles once led me to Nettles Farm on Lummi Island, in Washington. The owners laughed in disbelief when I told them that I was looking for nettles. When they saw my confusion, they explained that the first thing they had to do when they bought their farm was clear five acres of nettles. But they still used them when they grew back in places—in pasta dough, in a ravioli filling, with eggs, on crostini, and of course, in soup. A friend told me that eating this soup made her feel like an animal that had been out grazing in the wild, which is just how a bowl of nettle soup should make one feel. I don’t think people paid much attention to my nettle soup in Local Flavors until I made it and took a picture. Once it was posted on Facebook, it got some attention—it’s that gorgeous a green. I broke it up with a garnish of black nigella seeds, added more for their striking looks than anything else. (You can use black sesame seeds as well.) This version is tempered somewhat with chard and other greens, but the nettles will definitely come through. While I like to use wild greens, chard, beet greens, green orach, and lambsquarters will also work just fine, alone or in combination.

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Step 1

Bring plenty of water to a boil. Using tongs, plunge the nettles into a bowl of cold water and swish them back and forth to rinse them of any dust, then drop them into the boiling water and leave for 2 minutes. Pull them out, drain them, and then coarsely chop them. Discard any large stems. Reserve 6 cups of the water for the soup. (Any extra can go right into the garden.)

Step 2

Melt the butter in a wide soup pot and add the onion and potato or rice. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the wild spinach or chard, parsley, 1½ teaspoons of salt, and the 6 cups of reserved blanching water from the nettles. Bring to a boil, add the nettles, then lower the heat and simmer until the potato or rice is completely soft, 15 to 20 minutes.

Step 3

Purée the soup until perfectly smooth, then return it to the stove. (If the nettles were stemmy, pass the soup through a food mill or sieve.) Season with more salt, if needed, and with pepper. Swirl a teaspoon of cream into each bowl, then garnish with black sesame seeds or nigella seeds scattered over the surface.